Joe Pavelski under fire despite historic Game 1 performance

It was an epic return for Dallas Stars veteran forward Joe Pavelski in Game 1 of the second round series against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night. The 38-year-old was just returning from a head injury he suffered in the first contest of the previous round series against the Minnesota Wild due to a hit from Matt Dumba and made history, scoring four goals in the 5-4 overtime loss.

While he was acclaimed for his performance, becoming the oldest player in NHL postseason history to score four goals in a game, he was under fire when a former NHLer called him out for his behaviour and choices during warmups.

Retired forward and now analyst for TVA Sports Maxim Lapierre called out Pavelski for not wearing a helmet during warmups despite his lengthy concussion history. In French, he wrote: «I’m watching Pavelski skating around without his helmet during the warmups, and I’m asking myself some serious questions….»

A reporter from the Journal de Montreal then added that Pavelski was almost hit in the head during drills, which got Lapierre going again on the Stars veteran’s choices for his own safety.

Here are the original tweets: 

Pavelski put up 28 goals and 77 points in 82 games in the regular season while playing on Dallas’ top line. He missed out on the Stars’ last five games of the first-round series against the Wild as he sat in concussion protocol.

I get why Lapierre is worried about Pavelski, who has bit of a concussion history. We mostly remember when he was bloodied and shaken up after a scary fall following a 2019 collision with then-Vegas Golden Knights forward Cody Eakin. Pete DeBoer was his head coach then and maybe he could convince Pavelski to put on a bucker during warmups…

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